Music

In Bernie, Jack Black plays a small-town mortician who murders his live-in companion after she won't stop nagging him. The movie is based on a true story.

Jack Black: On Music, Mayhem And Murder

5:44pm January 02, 2013

Actor Jack Black plays a kindly small-town funeral director who murders a millionaire in the film Bernie. Black is also one-half of the comedy folk-rock group Tenacious D. In May, they released an album in the style of heavy metal bands from the 1980s.

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The sheet music for Beck's "Do We? We Do." as it appears in the Song Reader package.

Music & Culture

Beck Explains 'Song Reader,' An Album Fans Perform Themselves

2:57pm January 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

The shape-shifting musician often sounds like a completely different artist from one song to the next. On his new Song Reader, he leaves the sound in the listeners' hands.

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Music & Culture

Ed Sheeran: All Pluses, No Minuses

11:16am January 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

After several years spent releasing his own music and booking his own tours, the British singer-songwriter now has a Grammy nomination and an opening spot on Taylor Swift's U.S. tour.

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Miguel, whose album Kaleidoscope Dream was released in 2012, is nominated for five Grammy Awards.

Music & Culture

Miguel: An 'Honest Introduction' To An R&B Star

7:55pm December 31, 2012

by NPR Staff

Miguel has been kicking around the music industry for a decade. He says the success of his 2012 album, Kaleidoscope Dream, feels like the introduction he's been waiting for.

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Fresh Air's staff, surrounded by employees of WHYY at their 25th-anniversary party.

Music & Culture

'Fresh Air' At 25: A Live Musical Tribute

10:44am December 31, 2012

This year marked the 25th anniversary of Fresh Air as a daily national NPR program. This episode looks back at some of the great live musical performances from the show's archive, including songs from Shirley Horn, Loudon Wainwright III, Susannah McCorkle, Nick Lowe and Richard Thompson.

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Musician Kristina Olsen says Tibetan prayer flags flying over porches near her home in Venice, Calif., became the inspiration for a song.

Music & Culture

'Prayer Flags,' A Song About Waiting On Heavenly Help

5:37pm December 30, 2012

by NPR Staff

Musician Kristina Olsen says Tibetan prayer flags flying over porches near her home in Venice, Calif., made her wonder how divine forces decide whom to help and when.

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Music & Culture

Johnny Cash's Boyhood Home Tells The Story Of A Town

5:38pm December 29, 2012

by Michael Hibblen

It's been almost 10 years since Cash died, but fans still travel from around the world to see the tiny, dilapidated house where he grew up. Now, it's undergoing a painstaking restoration, with plans to open it as a museum in 2013.

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The London headquarters of EMI, whose sale this year brought the number of major labels from four to three.

Music & Culture

Reflecting On EMI, An Industry Giant Felled In 2012

5:38pm December 29, 2012

by Joel Rose

In the music business, 2012 may be remembered as the year the weakest of the major record labels was swallowed up by the others. The demise of EMI raises big questions about the future of a business now dominated by just a few players.

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Music & Culture

Remembering Fontella Bass, Voice Of A Soul Classic

5:06pm December 28, 2012

by Elizabeth Blair

R&B singer Fontella Bass has died at a hospice in St. Louis. She was 72. Bass is best known for the soul classic "Rescue Me."

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Seeing Purple Rain as kids instilled a lifelong love for Prince in friends Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Liberum, who co-lead the cover band Princess.

Music & Culture

This Is What It Sounds Like When Two Women Cover Prince

4:51pm December 28, 2012

by NPR Staff

SNL alumna Maya Rudolph and musician Gretchen Liberum co-lead the cover band Princess. The duo had its television debut, with some help from The Roots, on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon this fall.

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